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SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -1- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. Documentation for BBS message SEARCHer Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis 5207 Mossgrey Ln. Spring, Tx. 77373 AC 713-353-5295 (after 6:00 P.M.) *** NOTE *** This program is SHAREWARE, not FREEWARE! It is Copyrighted and remains my property. If you try it, and find it useful, please send $10.00 to me at the above address and I will send you the latest version on disk. If you do not find SEARCH useful, please pass the .ARC file on to someone who needs it. *** Once a registered user, always a registered user. *** I have a number of ideas to add to SEARCH, and I plan to continue to release new versions of SEARCH (if enough people find it use- ful and register). Registered users may update to the latest version by sending me the original distribution disk and a stamped, self-addressed floppy disk mailer. I will gladly provide telephone support to registered users. Unregistered users who are having problems can take their chances. Anyone who suggests a useful modification which I use in a later version receives the latest version on disk and becomes a registered user. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -2- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. ******** NOTICE: ******** The following describes the legal basis under which SEARCH and its associated files is distributed. If you disagree with these terms, please destroy all copies of the files, all printed mate- rial and forget you ever heard of this... Thanks /Don Lewis Now for the legal-eagle detail... SEARCH is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In no event will Don Lewis (hereafter referred to as the Author), be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use SEARCH, even if the Author has been advised of the possibil- ity of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. Your use of SEARCH is at your own risk, and by your use of it, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Author, his heirs and assigns from any legal action arising from your use of SEARCH for any purpose whatsoever. The version of SEARCH referenced in this document supersedes all previous versions. The Author advises that all previous versions of SEARCH be destroyed. Whew! I hope that deflects the hungry lawyers to a more helpless target (or one with deeper pockets). SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -3- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. SEARCH was written to deal with a problem I had as I was doing Genealogy research. There were so many messages posted on a local Bulletin Board from the National Genealogy Conference, that I used all my on-line time each day just reading. I decided to capture all the new messages and read them offline. That took much less online time, but then I had to read through ** HUNDREDS ** of messages looking for those few which referred to something I needed. SEARCH quickly reads all those messages for me now, compares each one to a list of words I am looking for, and then makes a file containing ** ONLY ** those messages which matched. SEARCH should also be useful to CompuServe(c) users, GEnie(c) users, members of The Source(c), or anyone who uses a BBS which handles lots of messages. Preparing to use SEARCH ----------------------- Like everything designed to save time, a little effort must be spent getting ready. To keep SEARCH relatively small and fast, I have not used elaborate error-checking for files that you will create. Please carefully follow the steps below, and your trou- bles will be few... 1) Using your terminal program (I'll not attempt to instruct on that, as there are a myriad of different terminal programs), dial up your BBS. Select the BBS command to read messages without stopping, and have your terminal program capture the messages in a file having the following name: MMMDD.NNN where: MMM is the three-letter month name e.g. JAN DD is the two-number day-of-the-month e.g. 10 NNN is the three-letter BBS name abbreviation e.g. PST for PasTracks TRS for TreeShare Thus, the file I captured from PasTracks on January 10, 1989 is named JAN10.PST *** Note *** Avoid EXE, COM or BAT for abbreviations and be con- sistent once an abbreviation is selected for a spe- cific bulletin board. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -4- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. 2) Create a file named SRCHTITL.NNN, where the NNN is the BBS name abbreviation used in step 1. This file must contain three (and ONLY three) words. The first word will be found at the very beginning of each mes- sage on the bulletin board, the second begins the line where message subject is shown and the third word is found at the beginning of the last line of each message (see procedure and example messages in Appendix A). These words are placed there by the BBS software, not by the message sender, and ** MUST ** appear in SRCHTITL.NNN exactly as they do in the downloaded messages (uppercase, lowercase, and any punctuation). 3) Create a file of search words named SEARCH.LST. A search word may contain letters, numbers, spaces or punctuation. Words may be composed of UPPERCASE, low- ercase or Mixed Case letters; SEARCH doesn't care and will find the letter sequence without reference to case. A word may be any length, but the longer it is, the slower SEARCH runs, and the less likely it is that a matching word will be found. Words are searched at full length, but are shortened to 8 characters for the screen display. Use only one word per line, 39 words maximum per search (more are ignored). Don't get too fancy with the punctuation and spaces in the word, because SEARCH looks for an ** EXACT ** match, and it is hard to predict how someone who sends a message will use punctuation. You can create this and the previous file using a word processor (be sure to use an ASCII format... some word processing programs call this a non- document mode), by using EDLIN (supplied with your DOS disks) or by using COPY CON (see Appendix C for details). SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -5- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. Using SEARCH ------------ Now we are ready to use SEARCH. The simplest arrangement is to have all the files SEARCH needs to be in the same directory as SEARCH. Files you will need are: SEARCH.EXE - the main program SRCHTITL.NNN - contains the three BBS message marker words SEARCH.LST - contains the words you are looking for MMMDD.NNN - the raw message file you captured Remember: The NNN in SRCHTITL.NNN **MUST** be the same as the abbreviation used as the extension to the raw message file, and a different SRCHTITL file must exist for each BBS you use. Just naming the file SRCHTITL.NNN will not work! Identify the file of BBS messages to be searched by entering it when SEARCH is run. e.g. SEARCH JAN10.PST Search will display the count of messages it is reading and those it is finding which include your search words. While it is searching, it creates 2 new files: MMMDDSRT.NNN, which contains the selected messages, and MMMDDSUB.NNN, which contains the subject of all the messages in the raw message file. (For JAN10.PST, the selected message file that SEARCH creates is named JAN10SRT.PST, and the file of subjects is named JAN10SUB.PST). JAN10SRT.PST contains all messages found to include any of the search words you put in SRCHTITL.NNN. Note that if you are searching for a word which is used as part of another word, mes- sages containing the longer word will be saved, too (when I search for my Grandfather Carr, I find messages including the words carry and Carrolton). To help you understand what word caused a message to be selected, SEARCH puts a header, which lists the found word, before each message, and marks the found word in the selected message file. You may TYPE the file of selected messages or subjects to the screen or printer to examine the result of the search. (See Appendix B for details). If no matching messages were found, the file will be created with just a header, the list of search words used, but no messages. In any case, the file of subjects will be created. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -6- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. *** Note *** *********************************************************** * The file of selected messages is over-written each time * * SEARCH is run, so be sure to rename it if you want to * * keep it for future reference. * *********************************************************** SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -7- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. ========== APPENDIX A ========== Here are several example messages to help you determine what words to use in SRCHTITL.NNN. In the example messages, all the messages begin with From: This is what the BBS software uses to indicate the beginning of a message. We'll use it too, so the first entry in the file SRCHTITL.NNN is From: The first several letters of the line at the beginning of the message subject line are the same for all messages, too. That line begins Subject: The second entry in SRCHTITL.NNN is Subject: The first several letters of the line at the end of the message are the same for all messages, too. That line begins * Origin: SEARCH will ignore the leading space before the *, and so can we. The third entry in SRCHTITL.NNN is * Origin: This BBS is called OnoxX, so the file will be named SRCHTITL.ONX. (It could just as well have been named SRCHTITL.OXX, or SRCHTITL.ONO; your choice.) Create a file for each BBS you use so each new raw message file will be searched properly. SRCHTITL.ONX consists of the following words: From: Subject: * Origin: SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -8- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. ========== APPENDIX A (cont'd) ========== ---------------- example messages ------------------- From: Bill Harris To: All Concerned Msg #2, 26-Dec-88 12:12am Subject: Genealogy Search I am interested in learning more about the HARRIS family of Osh- kosk. They came to Minnesota in the 1850's. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you. Bill Harris --- * Origin: The OnoxX BBS (Opus 9:999/999) From: Robert Peloppos To: Frank Hutrado Msg #3, 26-Dec-88 02:20am Subject: Re: Alto City., IA Frank, I did get your message. However, I am running about four weeks late in replying these days. I have the week off between Christmas and New Years and hope to use some of that time in catching up. Will get back to you soon. Bob --- * Origin: The OnoxX BBS (Opus 9:999/999) *** There is a reply. See #250. From: Alex Chadwicke Rec'd To: Jacob Beemer Msg #12, 26-Dec-88 08:25pm Subject: Virginia Ancestors Thanks for the feedback Jacob. Glad it can be of use to you. Alex --- Opus-CBCS 1.10.v * Origin: Treasury * Clanton Va * (403) 254-9573 * 9600 HST (9:999/9999.9) SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -9- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX B ============ Displaying the found messages in the search file. Note: [ent] means press the Enter key You can scroll the file on your screen to see what is in it by: TYPE JAN10SRT.PST[ent] As the messages start, hold your pinkie finger on the Ctrl key, and hover your forefinger over the S. When you see something interesting, press the S and the display will stop scrolling. Still holding the Ctrl, press the Q key to start the display again. Some computers will restart the scrolling when the Enter key or the Spacebar are pressed, also. You can get more fancy by copying the DOS file MORE.COM to the same disk (and same directory, if you have a Hard Disk) as SEARCH. Then, enter the following command: LOOKAT JAN10SRT.PST[ent] You will then get the file a screenful at a time, and a chance to read all of it at your leisure. You can stop reading at any time by holding the Ctrl key and pressing C. You can get a more permanent form by sending it to the printer. Make sure your printer is turned on, is online and has paper. TYPE JAN10SRT.PST > PRN[ent] The entire file of found messages will be printed. Note that the same process can be used on any of the SEARCH docu- mentation files, as well as those created by SEARCH. SEARCH.DOC, MMMDDSUB.NNN, NOTES.TXT, and MMMDD.NNN can be read or printed as described above. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -10- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. ============ APPENDIX C ============ Using COPY CON to create SRCHTITL.NNN and SEARCH.LST This is the slow way, but it works. If you do not have a word processor that can create a plain ASCII file (no control or for- matting codes) or a programmer's editor, and do not wish to sub- mit yourself to the mess that is EDLIN (which I can certainly understand), do this: Note: [ent] means press the Enter key, and [C-Z] means hold the key marked Ctrl or Control while press- ing Z first, from the DOS prompt, enter COPY CON SRCHTITL.NNN[ent] From:[ent] Subject:[ent] * Origin:[ent] [C-Z][ent] -the computer will respond with- 1 File(s) copied. then, from the DOS prompt, enter: TYPE SRCHTITL.NNN[ent] The new file will be listed to the screen. The file should have ** ONLY ** three words in it and (for this example), they ** MUST ** appear like this: From: Subject: * Origin: If the file contains the words you wanted it to, and they look like the example, you're done. Otherwise you will have to recreate the file again, because with COPY CON, there is no editing. Remember that the NNN extension used in this example is for example ** ONLY **. You must use an extension that matches the extension used on the appropriate BBS raw message file. Use the same process to create SEARCH.LST. SEARCH does not care whether the words you use in SEARCH.LST are UPPERCASE, lowercase, or Mixed Case, so just type them in, and you're ready to go! SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -11- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX D ============ ADVANCED USER TIPS: MARKING INTERESTING MESSAGES: ---------------------------- If you use a text editor to read through your raw message file, any message can be marked by adding ~ anywhere in the text (Note that while any character can be used, ~ is fairly uncommon in messages). Add ~ to SEARCH.LST to recover marked mes- sages. This is useful for messages of a gen- erally interesting nature which do not con- tain words that you usually search. While SEARCH can process a file of any size, some text editors cannot load a **VERY** large file (like 256 Kbytes, approximately 300 messages). If your message files are likely to be very large, break up a capture session into smaller chunks. USING THE SUBJECT FILE: ----------------------- The Subject file (MMMDDSUB.NNN) provides a quick look at some new words to search for. After running SEARCH through a raw message file, take a look at the file of subjects; you may find something new, maybe a name or word to add permanently to your SEARCH.LST file. WORDS TO SEARCH FOR: -------------------- Sometimes you will get more names if you do not use the entire name you want to find. I'm not sure how my wife's G-father spelled TACKETT (TACKET?). I search for TACKET, and find both spellings. This is useful for any name which could have variable spellings in the last few letters. Note that if you are looking for SUBLETTE and you just use SUB, you are going to find ** ALL ** the messages, since they all have Subject: in the message heading. In cases like that, it is better to enter each of the alternative spellings in SEARCH.LST. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -12- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX D (cont'd) ============ AUTOMATING SEARCH: ----------------- SEARCH sets a DOS ERRORLEVEL code when it has completed a run. ERRORLEVEL is set to 0 if the file of found messages has at least one message in it; otherwise, ERRORLEVEL is set to 255. Your batchfile can check the ERROR- LEVEL to decide whether to rename the file of found messages or to go on with the next SEARCH using a renamed list of search words. See your DOS manual, in the area that describes batchfiles, for the discussion of the IF ERRORLEVEL construct. My thanks to James Davis for this idea. SEARCH ON A HARD DISK: ---------------------- SEARCH need not be to be in the same subdi- rectory with these BBS message files in order to work: SRCHTITL.NNN SEARCH.LST MMMDD.NNN Make sure that SEARCH.EXE is in a subdirec- tory on the path, and the three files are together in the same directory. Change to the subdirectory containing the three files and then use the command: SEARCH MMMDD.NNN SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -13- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX D (cont'd) ============ SEARCH ON A DIFFERENT DRIVE: ---------------------------- SEARCH does not have to be on the same drive as the message files, either. If you have the three files on drive A: and SEARCH.EXE on your C: drive in the \UTIL subdirectory, change to A: and issue the following command: C:\UTIL\SEARCH MMMDD.NNN If you use the same floppy disk to search messages each time, create a batchfile named SEARCH.BAT on the floppy disk. The batchfile will contain the following line: C:\UTIL\SEARCH %1 Also, make sure the three files are on the floppy disk. Then, you can invoke SEARCH by typing SEARCH MMMDD.NNN, just as though SEARCH.EXE was present on the floppy disk. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -14- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX D (cont'd) ============ SEARCH CAN BE RENAMED: ---------------------- SEARCH has no idea what its' name is, nor any concern about being renamed; in the software development process, it undergoes a name change, anyway. Why do I mention this? Well, apparently SEARCH.EXE is not an uncommon name among genealogy program files (and maybe among other types of utilities, as well). Feel free to rename it to suit yourself and to avoid conflicts with existing utilities having the same name. SYSOP'S UTILITY: --------------- Thanks to Edward Hayden, SysOp of PasTracks BBS for the following tip: SysOps of FIDO and OPUS BBS systems use a utility called SAVECHO (there are some other utilities with the same capability) to automatically save messages before they are erased due to age. SAVECHO creates a file which can be searched with SEARCH, just as though the messages had been captured while online. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -15- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX E ============ ERROR MESSAGES AND CONDITIONS: 1) Q: Just after the program started, I got a box on the screen warning that the filename had improper form. A: The only raw message filename that SEARCH recognizes is in the form MMMDD.NNN. Pretty picky about that. See section 1 in "Preparing to use SEARCH". 2) Q: Just after the program started, I got a box on the screen warning that a file was missing. A: Either SRCHTITL.NNN or SEARCH.LST (or both) is missing from the current directory, or is garbled. Create or repair them as necessary. SEARCH must have both files available and in correct format. 3) Q: SEARCH processes the raw message file, but the message count doesn't increase from 0 or increases very slowly even though I know the messages are short and there are lots of them. A: SRCHTITL.NNN contains the wrong words to mark the beginning and end of a message for the raw message file you are searching. -- or -- The BBS may not be adding an ending line to all messages; some BBS software only adds an ending line to messages received via a network (the origin of local messages is not given, because presumably, you know where you are...). Look for a header that the BBS places before the From: line, and use that for the ending line. CompuServe is an example of this. 4) Q: As SEARCH processes the raw message file, the message count stops at 1 and then SEARCH crashes. A: There is an error in the ending line marker word in SRCHTITL.NNN. SEARCH is finding the beginning of the mes- sage, but doesn't see the end, so it just keeps reading until your computer memory fills. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -16- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX E (cont'd) ============ 5) Q: SEARCH finds every message. A: SEARCH.LST contains a word that appears in every message (from, to, subject, etc.) 6) Q: When I search for CARR, SEARCH finds carrel, carrot, carry- ing, Carrolton and Carrie; I don't want to find that junk... what to do? A: Nothing. Just use the header word in the sorted message file to see what caused SEARCH to select that particular message, and look for the marked word in the body of the message. ********** ** Note ** Don't try to fool SEARCH into catching only names by ********** putting a space before or after a name in SEARCH.LST. Many message writers use a / to separate names, as: CARR/KARR/SMITH/JONES or some other symbol CARR, SMITH Neither of those would be caught by [spc]CARR[spc] in SEARCH.LST 7) Q: When I run on a floppy disk, SEARCH occasionally crashes with a message like: Error 61 in Module SRCH1xx at XXXX:YYYY Press any key to return to system. A: Your disk is full, and became full as SEARCH was writing found message records. Why did I (your obedient program- mer) let this happen? Well, SEARCH cannot determine how large a found message record file will be, and thus cannot anticipate this failure. Note that when this failure occurs, the file of found mes- sages ** WILL NOT ** be complete; create some free disk space and run SEARCH again. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -17- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX E (cont'd) ============ You can create more free space on your work floppy by mov- ing some un-needed program or raw message files to an archive disk. Or, reduce the number of search words so that the found message file will be smaller. Note that deleting the output files SEARCH produces will not help, as they are re-created each time SEARCH runs. SEARCH - The BBS Message Searcher Version 1.32 Page -18- Copyright (C) 1989 by Don Lewis. All rights reserved. =========== APPENDIX F =========== The shareware version of SEARCH must be provided to other users without charge, except that a reasonable disk duplication and postage charge may be made (not to exceed $5). This ARC must contain the following files: SEARCH.EXE - the main program file SEARCH.DOC - the document file you are reading PRINTDOC.BAT - prints SEARCH.DOC LOOKAT.BAT - displays the found or raw message file NOTES.TXT - release notes and bug fixes README.1ST - Urgent updates from earlier versions If all files are not present, please contact me and tell me what files are present, and where you got your copy. Please support SHAREWARE programmers by sending your SHAREWARE contribution to make more (and better) software available. Remember that with SHAREWARE, if you don't like what I did in the program, you have no money invested and thus no hassle getting your money back. Just try to get a refund after you have opened the package of a $300.00 commercial application! If you feel that this program is useful to you, please send $10.00 to: Don Lewis 5207 Mossgrey Ln. Spring, Texas 77373 Registered users receive the latest version of SEARCH, serialized and without the SHAREWARE contribution solicitation. Registered users may update to the latest version by sending me the original distribution disk and a stamped, self-addressed floppy disk mailer. Thank you for using SEARCH ... Don Copyright (C) 1989 Don Lewis